Star Flares
by amulet1412
Summary: Sakura meets world of SnS, along with what ensues. Will she ever accept the fact that everything she knew about magic up till then was not really true? Deadfic.
1. Chapter 1

**As of 5/4/12, this story has been declared dead. Adoption is up, please PM me. Also, please note that this version is a combined one of a rewritten chapter 1 and the original chapter 2. **

"Flames..." Sakura circled around, stunned. The world around her was engulfed in fire the color of a blazing sunset. She moved from her spot, and turned around to meet face to face with a glinting sword, wielded by a girl shorter than herself, bearing hair and eyes the color of the flames around her.

"Who are-"

Her alarm sounded off the start of a new day, just like any other prophetic dream.

* * *

Brushing past the aisle of blooming sakura trees, Sakura Kinomoto raced down the street on her skates to get to school. She had barely been able to wake up in time, had

"Good morning, Sakura, " greeted Tomoyo as the brunette entered the door. Chiharu, Naoko, and Rika also gave their greetings, and Sakura replied reflexively. As if out of nowhere though, Yamazaki popped up and began his daily 'trivia.' While everyone realized that they were lies, it was an expected stand up routine in the classroom.

"Hey, did you know? The reason why erasers can erase is because-"

"Yes, yes, we all know what you're about to spout more lies, Yamazaki," Chiharu groaned as everybody else giggled, for some things never changed. The teacher then came in, and the school day began, starting with math.

Lunch passed by uneventfully, with Sakura and everyone talking about the new teachers and classes; small talk that wouldn't be brought up ever again. The only thing that was on Sakura's mind was endlessly recalling the strange dream of a world in crimson flames.

Sakura left school immediately after it ended, because there wasn't any cheerleading in middle school. However, she remembered that she lacked a few groceries, and went into town to get some fresh vegetables. A package of pudding was also on the list for Kero, but that was without question. She turned into town and greeted the grocery store owner, and went down her shopping list. The short haired brunette appeared out of the store a while later with a bundle of produce, as well as snacks.

'I also need to get some extra pencils. I'll need to stop by Twin Bells,' Sakura thought, turning back around to finish her errands.

And then, the world turned red.

* * *

"Really, there's been signs of Crimson Denizens around here again? Jeez. They really don't know their place," Margery commented as she skimmed the summarized reports from Outlaw. "Oi, was there anything else about it?"

"That was the only information -de arimasu," replied the Manipulator of Objects from the kitchen, cleaning up after another recipe she got from Chigusa. As usual, an pungent burnt smell emanated from the room next door, signifying another failure. At the very least, Shana and Wilhelmina were the only people who lived here, so it wasn't much of a bother.

"And here I thought that it'd be too peaceful lately." Margery said out loud. "Guess not."

* * *

"Hoe..." Sakura let slip from her mouth and dropped her groceries. The people on the street had stopped moving, as if the Time card had activated. She shook a tree branch and watched leaves fall, noticing that she could still affect her surroundings.

'This is most definitely not normal...' she told herself, and drew out her star baton. As she neared the end of the road, a formerly indistinct aura grew stronger and stronger.

'Shield, form a impenetrable barrier,' Sakura mentally conjured, and turned around the curve. She felt the protective layer wrap around her, but it was unable to block the jarring scene in front of her.

A gruesome jelly-like monster was on the street, clinging onto a middle-aged woman. Within the blink of an eye, the person burst into blue flames, and the creature fell onto the ground. Then, the jelly gurgled and began to move closer to the end of the street, aiming for the next victim. No signs of the person remained.

'What... what is this thing?' Sakura drew out the Sword card and neared the beast. As she got closer, it started to screech like an angered vulture. Raising the blade, Sakura sliced it into two, and it burst into olive colored flames. However, the fire quickly extinguished itself, and two of the creatures returned.

Since it only made matters worse, Sakura changed tactics, and withdrew Windy and Watery, hoping that the fire that the creature seemed to made out of would die out.

"Create a hurricane of wind and water and quell the fire, Windy! Watery!" The cards immediately responded to their master's call, and melded together to surround the monsters. It screamed once again, and before it exploded in the storm, Sakura could hear it moan:

"Must... collect Hougu... M-master... help..."

The torrent made by the cards then ended, and Windy, Watery, as well as Shield returned into Sakura's palm. She felt the presence of the jelly-monster disappear, and finally vanish completely when the world turned back to its normal color. The townspeople began to move again, but the person who turned into flames never did return to the street. In fact, to Sakura's horror, she couldn't feel the woman's presence at all.

It was as if... she had never existed in the first place.

* * *

"Did you feel that, Shana?" Yuji Sakai asked a certain girl who happened to be munching on melon bread.

Shana swallowed, and retorted, "You mean that slight disturbance just now? That was probably a Rinne being destroyed. They always have a distinct signature."

"But doesn't mean that there's another Flame Haze not too far away? That clearly was not Carmel-san or Margery-san's signature."

"Flames Hazes often cross paths. We will merely state our presence and any self-preserving Flame Haze would respect our ground." Alastor provided. Yuji nodded in understanding, but still wondered who it could be. For it was a fact that Misaki City was a harbinger of trouble, and it had been far too long since the last conflict.

* * *

"Sa-ku-raaaa-" A loud voice rattled her ear as Sakura turned to face Chiharu. "Jeez, you've been out of it all week, is something up?"

Sakura shook her head. "Its nothing, Chiharu-chan. I was just thinking about something."

"Like when Li-san is coming over for Golden Week? Don't think I can't tell, you two have definitely going on."

"Well... I wouldn't deny it but isn't that exaggerating it a little?" Tomoyo and Rika laughed, and the four of them began to converse their plans for spring break. Yet, even with all of the cheerful conversation, Sakura couldn't calm herself, as if her premonition was to soon come true.

But that didn't deny the fact that she couldn't wait for break to arrive any faster.

* * *

It was April 10th, a week from the incident. Sakura, still thinking about the fight, stayed quiet that whole week. Playing as a cheerful character as usual, on the inside she felt utterly confused and dazed. She spent her days searching for any hints on what that blob could have been, but even consulting Eriol didn't help much. His answers were far too general. She hadn't even been able to figure out what the blob meant by "master."

However, there was one thing she was sure about, and that was the master would probably target somewhere in Tomoeda again. By the end of the week, she defeated another creature with a similar presence.

'Everything seemed to pass by in a blur,' she thought to herself. Currently, she was walking home with Tomoyo, who wanted to discuss about her strange dreams, and what she could film about next time. Despite the heavy content of a impending danger, they were able to chat lightheartedly and eventually said their goodbyes, parting ways.

When Sakura reached Penguin Park, a wave of power shook her. She realized that a presence similar to the two previous entities she felt. Once again, the red hue appeared and time froze.

"So, you are a Mystes, yet were able to defeat my Rinne? Interesting." A childish voice came from behind her. Cautiously, Sakura twisted her head around to face the speaker. In front of her was a young girl, about the same age as Sakura herself, standing on a…lamppost? She wore casual clothes: pair of jeans, a graphic tee with a sleeveless jacket, and a barrette sported on the top of her brown hair. Despite looking harmless enough, it was fairly easy to judge that the girl was not normal because one, she could move in this red space, and two; girls don't typically stand on lampposts. Unless they had some unusual ability.

Acting as little threatening as possible, Sakura inquired, "Who are you? I don't think we've met." She hoped she didn't have to battle, but the chances of that seemed pretty slim. The young girl simply twirled her hair and looked at it, replying:

"I am the Persona of Amusement. I don't have an exact name, but people call me Elemis. I like to make things as interesting as they can possibly be." She then darted her eyes at Sakura, and continued, "but you're in the way. After all, I can't do that without Power of Existence."

Now Sakura was confused. What was 'Power of Existence'? And what about 'Rinne', and…Mystes was it? "Anyhow," the girl interrupted Sakura's train of thought, "I need to get rid of you here and now in order for me to play my little game." Slowly, the childish face turned malicious, with her mouth curving slightly at the ends. "That's why I'm here, am I not?"

* * *

Staring at the young girl who made a ominous statement, Sakura released her baton out of key form, ready to combat.

"Ehe, so you want to fight? That sounds fun, because I'll win for sure!"

"Hoe?" Sakura didn't follow. It was silent for the next few seconds.

"I said: I'm going to fight now!" More silence of stupidity ensued. Finally, the Seeker of Amusement shouted in annoyance, "Fine! I don't care anymore! You Mystes are all so simple minded!" As she emitted the last few words, Sakura realized that there were several doll shaped fireballs chasing her.

"Hoeeeeeee! I didn't know that we were actually fighting!" Sakura ran down the alley crying, not sure on what to do. As usual, she summoned:

"Jump!"

"Eh? So you can move around like that? That's pretty cool!" the Seeker of Amusement squealed in delight. "Ja, I'm not going easy on you either!" Conjuring up another volley of attacks, this time it rained down fiery bouncy balls that Sakura could barely evade.

'Rain! That's it!' Calling her cards once again, she shouted "Rain!" who then brought down an onslaught of torrential downpour on the girl.

Now soaking wet, the girl really began to realize how weak yet annoying her opponent really was. So, she decided to call upon her Hougu, Ragilis, which was an unlimited set of explosives that looked like marbles. Though considerably worthless, that was the main (only) source of defense and offence that the Seeker of Amusement wielded other than her flame manipulating skills.

"Take that! Hei!" The Persona, or rather, Elemis, then started a continuous barrage of explosions upon Sakura, who realized she had to call another card if she did not want to get injured. So as defense she called up Shield and could finally play offensive, which her first idea was to let Arrow take its turn. Skillfully, the arrows weaved though the chaos and targeted right onto Elemis, causing her to screech in pain. Sakura, being more of the pacifist type, halted her attack, only to realize that it was a foolish move. Because after that:

"Hah! Think you can beat me? Too bad!" The Seeker of Amusement countered, and this time created a cheerleader baton was formed from flames and she mimicked Sakura's baton twirling skills. At the same point, she stopped the falling bouncy balls from their assault. Sakura, not wanting to be beaten, started to rehearse every routine she recalled from two years ago, only to have the strange girl Elemis mimic her. This cheerleading competition lasted for a few minutes until the card mistress, as always, bonked her head with it.

"Is that all you got? You're quite pathetic then!" the Seeker jeered. Finally, Sakura had enough wit to actually realize that by doing this she was getting nowhere and she needed to take action. Deciding it would be effective, she discreetly used Mirror to replicate herself, and Mirror did so by repeating whatever Elemis did. With the strange girl now confused, Sakura prepared to attack. Summoning Sword, she shifted behind the Seeker and was raised her weapon. That is, until the flaming baton punched into Sakura's stomach.

After being wounded, Sakura plummeted to the ground, and while so lost any control over her body. The girl Elemis watched Sakura's descent and laughed, blowing a raspberry. Thankfully, she was able to mutter "Fly," who saved her, as a bird, from the otherwise fatal fall. It was then that she realized that by the time she made it safely to the ground, another girl had already defeated Elemis by slicing her with a katana, who then disappeared. This girl, however, had a completely different aura.

Even her just standing there gave a majestic and powerful sense of order. Just like in her dream, crimson flames surrounded the mysterious girl. Her hair was ablaze, and It looked like her eyes were more like orbs of flame rather than what they really were. This is the girl that Sakura would come to know as Shana, the Flame Haired Blazing Eyed Hunter. The Flame Haze of the Guze Lord Alastor, Shakugan no Enpatsu Uchite.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura or Shakugan no Shana.

Sakura stared at the grandiose girl, and a moment of silence was held between them. There was no wind, but the girl's hair billowed, sending out small embers behind her, like a trail of glitter. She started to walk toward Sakura, and raised her sword, with Sakura still on the ground.

"Alastor, I'm guessing this is a Mystes, isn't it? Should I bring her with me?" the girl spoke to no one that Sakura could see.

Suddenly, a deep voice filled Sakura's ears, replying to the flame-haired girl. "It seems this one knows its capabilities, so it would be a good idea." The girl lowered her sword and stretched a hand to Sakura, and so she took it, helping herself up. It was until then that Sakura realized the height of this powerful being.

"Uhh… what grade are you in?" Sakura asked, hoping that the girl wouldn't be offended.

"High school first year," the vertically challenged girl replied, while shoving her katana into her jacket.

Sakura thought for a moment, recalling a name from her dream. "Are you the Flame Haired Blazing Eyed Hunter?" The girl turned around.

"Yes, I am. Do you know me from somewhere?" The orange flame color dissipated from the girl, but then pulled out her katana again, looking at Sakura suspiciously.

"N-NO! Its just that I heard it from a dream I had once!" Sakura defended, panicking for she had exhausted most of her power and wouldn't be able to put up much a fight. The girl then raised a hand, and the red tint vanished, once again starting time. Sakura realized she still had her baton out and changed it back to key form. Sighing, she realized that the girl was now waiting for her at the end of the sidewalk, gesturing for her to come. She ran down to catch up, and then slowed to a walking pace to talk to her. Observing the girl's uniform, she asked:

"Are you from Misaki City? Because isn't that the school uniform they have for the high schoolers?" The other girl nodded, not giving a reply. "And, um, is there another name I can call you other than the Flame Haired Blazing Eyed Hunter-san? It's a bit long, isn't it?"

"Shana. You can call me by Shana," the girl retorted plainly, not turning to face Sakura.

"So, Shana-san, where are we going?" Sakura asked as they came to a halt in front of a traffic sign. She thought about the homework that she still had to do, and noted that she had lots of math tonight.

"To my house, or Yuji's."

"And, is that in Misaki City?"

"Yes." They came to a sparsely populated area, and Shana sprouted bright crimson wings, and once again her hair changed into a flashy red-orange. She jumped up, and began to fly away. Sakura watched in awe. "What, I told you that you didn't need to come anymore?" Shana snapped. Sakura panicked a bit, and called out the Fly card without using her baton, a skill that took her little trouble to master before. Moments later, the crimson and white wing clad girls were above Misaki City, which as a car ride was a 10 minute drive from Tomoeda. Sakura followed Shana carefully, and they landed on the of someone's house. Shana called back her fiery wings, and Sakura did the same to her feathered ones. Sakura watched puzzled as she watched the shorted girl knock on the window, and crawl in. Shortly after, a hand popped out, waving for Sakura to come in. Leaning on the ladder, she climbed into the room and found a dark-haired boy sitting at a writing desk, with Shana next to him. Sakura noticed that Shana was looking a bit annoyed, and the boy faintly smiling.

"Hey, my name is Sakai Yuji. Nice to meet you "

Moments later and coming through the front door, Sakura was sitting at the dining table of the Sakai residence while enjoying tea. Yuji had told Shana that his mom might find it strange that there were louder bumps than usual and that it would be hard to hide two people in the same room. She paused to observe her surroundings. Shana looked rather stoic, with no expression on her face, while Sakai maintained the cheerful deposition he carried earlier.

"Kinomoto-chan, would you like some more tea?" Chigusa asked, being the good host that she is.

"No, but thank you." Sakura replied, and turned to face Yuji to see what excuse he would come up with to explain why a girl ten minutes away from here suddenly came to visit. In the end, she decided to take the initiative, and placed a straight face on herself.

"Um, Chigusa-san, do you mind if your son participates in Tomeda's High School survey? As part of the survey, we are supposed to ask high schoolers from various schools questions. My friend Yamazaki is an acquaintance of Yuji and told me that I could come see him in his stead." 'Shoot', Sakura thought. 'Then why would I be invited into this house?' "A-also, if you don't mind, there is also a parent questionnaire that would be great if you could fill it out." She then mentally called for Create and began to form together a sheet of questions, and realized that Shana and Yuji were now looking at her strangely.

"Ah, well, I don't see any problem in that. Ask away, Kinomoto-san." Yuji's mom responded. Sakura then swung over her backpack and pretended to rummage through her pack before pulling out a small packet of papers.

"Mom, since this is going to take a while, how about I show Kinomoto-san around? After all, it would be nice to hear how Yamazaki-san is doing." Sakura was thankful that Yuji got the clue and used an actual classmate of her's. That way it'd be harder to slip up.

"That is fine for me. Kinomoto-san, I shall be finished soon, but feel free to come by anytime." Chigusa informed Sakura.

"Th-thank you Sakai-san!"


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura or Shakugan no Shana.

"Hey, Chanter of Elegies, what's the verdict on this girl?" Shana questioned as she lied down onto the Satou residence's sofa. It had been a day since Sakura had met this gathering of flame manipulating people, or more specifically, the busty and liquor-loving Margery Daw and her trusty (sidekick) Crimson Lord Maricosias. A thread of Unrestricted Spells circled around Sakura as they continued to gather data about the origin of her cards and book. She had finally got used to all of the interesting ways of combat that the Hazes used, and figured out the long list of terms they used.

"Well, as I can tell, she is definitely a Torch, but her amount of existence keeps on fluctuating along with her Hougu." Margery described. "It's been a while since I've seen something like this. There seems to be no amount of Existence lost when she uses her Hougu, like other offensive tools Nietono no Shana or Blutsauger. But other than that, I can't pinpoint the origin, name, or time of creation. It's like it came out of nowhe-"

"It was created by the magician Clow Reed, and I have reconstructed it three years ago under my jurisdiction…" Sakura trailed off. 'Why must I make things so awkward…' she thought to herself.

"Wait, you said you reconstructed it?" Alastor's deep voice queried, surprised that such a normal child had such a large capability of forming Unrestricted Spells. Plus, he realized the amount of energy to create a Hougu in the first place is a ridiculous amount for humans' standards. Just who was this girl?

"Yes, since the cards need an owner to properly exist and function, they have to have the same origin of power as the user. Since Clow Reed drew energy from the darkness between the sun and moon, I had to re-create each card to draw energy from the stars. Otherwise, these cards would eventually cease to exist."

"Wait, are you saying that you provide all the energy that sustains these cards?" Shana queried. "Alastor, no human has such a large flame capacity, right?"

"While I have never heard of such a large amount of existence for a human, it's not impossible and should find out more first."

"Shana, is it possible that Sakura-san's Existence used to activate her Hougu is really based off of the energy of stars which is channeled through her and into the book, and then she feeds the Hougu her Existence to keep the Hougu functioning?" proclaimed Yuji. Despite everyone being surprised at how Yuji could formulate such an out-of-the box theory, the Flame Hazes and respective Crimson Denizens realized that it held quite some weight in proof.

"Well, then how would you explain fluctuation of her flame. And it that case she would end up having spent up all of her existence long ago." Margery pointed out. After all, if Sakura had star based powers, which were then channeled that through the cards to maintain their existence, then she would have a constant, steady amount of Flame left. But, instead of being an even amount, according to the Chanter's Unrestricted Spells she was actually losing some existence right when she started the scan, and then suddenly accumulated before losing some again.

"Um, if it helps you figure this out, I am also the owner of two deities called Cerberus and Yue. They control the sun and moon respectively. Also, like the sun and moon, Cerberus can create his own power while Yue draws his existence from me. Here… I'll summon them over." Sakura then opened the book and internally recited a spell, summoning both guardians of the Book of Sakura. However, when the glowing magic circles summoning them faded, each person stared on in shock at the… plush-like thing that was floating in the middle of the air next to a high-school aged teen that donned a pair of glasses.

"Konnachiwa!"

"Ah, this is the best snacks I've tasted in a while!" Kero exclaimed as he happily dug into the cakes that were set out when Sakura first arrived at Satou's house. They were bought at the new local bakery after Shana dragged Yuji along to try the melon bread there. Currently, everyone was shocked at how the small creature could consume fifteen tarts under a minute. On the other hand, Yukito had sat down and had a cup of tea, taking the whole situation in stride. Sakura squirmed in the tense atmosphere, and continued to be under surveillance of Margery's spells.

Shana carefully observed the guardians' mannerisms as they settled down into the new environment. Making sure that they knew everything about this tool, she asked, "Is this all of the things related to this Hougu? Anything else?"

"Other than the summoning key, this is all of the cards and guardians related to the magical tome originally created by Clow. Um, but what exactly is the exchange of Flame that you are all talking about?"

Swallowing her melon bread, Shana cleared her throat and replied, "Yuji is suggesting that right now, the Hougu takes the existence of the stars to get enough flame to activate your cards. Then, when the cards are not in use, along with the guardian beasts, they get Power of Existence from you." Sakura shuffled in her seat a bit, trying to make sense of all the information she was getting just now. She glanced at Yukito and Kero, who were quietly listening and paused eating cake. "Now, its possible that the Hougu constantly replenishes your Power of Existence, similar to Yuji's Reiji Maigo, but we've established that that's not the case. So…"

Alastor then commented, "Shana, since this girl has such a large existence, its possible that some of the flame, after Sakura became a Mystes, left some residue from the original bonding. If that is so, it could have become split among these parts of the tome, and is constantly used to replenish whoever's flame is smallest at the time."

Standing up, the Chanter of Elegies added, "Yes, that would explain the fluctuation, and if they can gain Power of Existence by using that key of her's, they would introduce more flame to that circulating system. But," Margery then turned to face the middle school girl, "how does a girl like her get her hands on such a complex and unusual Hougu. Surely, over the time its lied locked, as you said that Clow guy died years before, other Denizens and Hazes might have wanted to get this."

"Haha, my slow goblet Margery Daw has finally made some sense in this worl-"

"Baka Marco!" The vessel was met with a stifling punch as he was shut up. Sakura sweat dropped at the sight of the violent relationship between Flame Haze and Denizen, but then smiled at how even though they were a strange group caught up in the logics of existence, they were pleasantly sociable. 'Surely, its going to turn out fine,' she thought to herself.

Soon though, things were to turn hectic. Perhaps, for the worse.

* * *

A/N: I shall try to update as often as possible, but I get writer's block easily. I will probably be updating in quick, short chapters.

Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

"So let's state the facts here: the book of Sakura is based on the existence of stars, and uses a combination of the Mystes and outer sources of flame. The book contains 53 cards, which each performs a unique action. It also has two guardians that are sun and moon based. This Hougu was originally created by a man named Clow Reed, and is a dream-seer. Does that all sound right to you, Kinomoto?" Shana queried, listing off the things they established in Satou's house.

"That's all that I know of. But, how do flame affect Hougus and Mystes so much? The magic I use is just how much I could control at a given time." Sakura Kinomoto, age 14, asked. She had already summoned Yue and Keroberos, and shown their true forms. According to Margery Daw, they were just an extension to the books powers and nothing was particularly important. The cards were also found to be embedded with complex Jiziahou, which Margery insinuated that was for the card's unique traits.

"Like we told you earlier Sakura-san, flame is the basis of existence, and Mystes are created when Hougu interact with a person's flame," Yuji commented, and noticed that there was suddenly a light pink Unrestricted Spell flowing from Sakura to her book. "Margery-san, is this the proof we are looking for to say that Sakura and the book's Flame is shared?" pointing at the new spell flowing across the table.

"Hmm?" somehow without anyone noticing Margery was already showing a tinge of pink on her cheeks, while holding a glass with a bottle of unidentifiable wine beside her. "Oh, this." She grasped the Jizaihou and pulled out a copy of it, and started an analysis of the code.

"Hey, Satou, go fetch me another bottle of what ever I just had, and quick," as she downed the glass with one swift motion.

Sakura, new to the group, was the least to say shocked at the mature Flame Haze's drinking habit, but looking around, she realized that the boy named Satou had left with no complaints and everyone else seemed indifferent.

_I guess Margery Daw is a heavy drinker then,_ she thought to herself. She looked at Yukito and Kero, which the latter had fallen sleepy and lied down in Yukito's lap.

On the other hand, Shana began thinking about what to do with Kinomoto Sakura now. If she left her alone, not only would she lose a potential ally (and she knew now how helpful they are in the long run) but also lose the Mystes and Hougu to the hands of the Bal Masqué. However, she did not know yet how capable she was.

"Sakura, for now let us see your abilities."

"Hoe? But Shana-san, do we do it here? Shouldn't we move elsewhere?" After all, many of her cards abilities were quite destructive, The Hope more so than the others.

"Of course." Shana intoned. "Hey, Margery, you're finished with the scanning right? We'll be taking our leave now, so you can end them now."

Pouring another glass of wine, the Chanter of Elegies waved her hand as if shooing away the Unrestricted Spells and ended them before replying, "Go ahead," and continued in downing another glass. Shana, Sakura, Yuji, and Yukito, who had Kero-chan on his shoulder, got up and began to leave. In the hallway, they found Satou carrying another bottle of spirits (no, not souls and ghosts, the other one) and the four gave them their goodbyes.

As Yuji watched Keisaku closed the door, Sakura innocently asked, "Shana-san, is Margery-san always like that? I-I mean, does she always order around Satou-san for everything she needs?"

As Shana walked down the street, she glanced at Yuji, then Sakura, and grumbled; "She's always like that, and that human does that out of his own free will."

"Hoe?" Sakura realized that out of all the people there, Satou seemed to be the only one without any powers, and wondered how he learned of the Crimson Realm and its inhabitants. _But still, am I really a Mystes? It just doesn't seem quite right, _Sakura thought to herself. "Ne, Shana-san, Sakai-san, where exactly are we going?"

Yuji smiled back at her reassuringly. "We're going to the riverside, since it's less crowded there and quiet." Sakura nodded, showing some recognition. In the end, it was much less stressful talking to Sakai-san for Sakura. After all, Shana naturally had an intimidating aura and her way of speech was not very warm in general, as if she would snap at one at any given moment. Her grip around her star key tightened and she quickened her pace to keep up.

The trio finally arrived at the hill where Yuji and Shana usually performed their training. That night it happened to be a full moon, which casted shadows across the plain area. They paused at a spot, and Shana motioned for Yuji to back away.

"Now, let's begin Sakura," Shana called to the middle-schooler as a familiar red light tinted the area around them.

* * *

A/N: Okay, so to let everyone know, this is more of a Shana-verse fic than a Sakura one (implying that it includes all of CLAMP's works), and I realized that I should have done the category list in relevance, not alphabetical order. Since Shana's world is a bit less complex than CLAMP's, I will be sticking to Flame and such (really, I think that if I were to add Yuuko and the people of the Clow kingdom, this plot would implode on itself).

Why do I feel like the ending is now totally predictable… And oh dear, I forgot about Carmel-san! Oops… But don't worry! She shall come (eventually). Hopefully I can update soon.

End of author's blabbering.

Read and review please!

**As of 5/4/12, this story has been declared dead. Adoption is up, please PM me.**


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